Democrats have been digging in on the idea that Ryan's plan would end Medicare. |
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On debt and Social Security:

“Mounting debt also threatens our poorest and most vulnerable citizens, because those who depend most on government would be hit hardest by a fiscal crisis. We have to repair our safety net programs so that they are there for those who need them most. This starts by building on the successful, bipartisan welfare reforms of the mid-1990s.”

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On the debt limit:

“The House-passed budget doesn’t just put the budget on a path to balance — it actually pays off the debt over time. We can’t achieve this goal by simply rubber-stamping increases in the national debt limit without reducing spending in Washington.”

“If the debt ceiling has to be raised, then we’ve got to cut spending. The House-passed budget contained $6.2 trillion in spending cuts. For every dollar the President wants to raise the debt ceiling, we can show him plenty of ways to cut far more than a dollar of spending. Given the magnitude of our debt burden, the size of the spending cuts should exceed the size of the President’s debt limit increase.”

On class warfare:

“Class warfare may be clever politics, but it is terrible economics. Redistributing wealth never creates more of it... Sowing social unrest and class envy makes America weaker, not stronger. Playing one group against another only distracts us from the true sources of inequity in this country — corporate welfare that enriches the powerful, and empty promises that betray the powerless.

“If we succumb to this view that our problems are bigger than we are — if we surrender more control over our economy to the governing class — then we are choosing shared scarcity over renewed prosperity, and managed decline over economic growth. That’s the real class warfare that threatens us — a class of governing elites picking winners and losers, and determining our destinies for us.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 10:25 a.m. on May 16, 2011.

Boehner, McConnell, Ryan and the GOP (Greed On Parade) folks will abuse their power again and again to hold the country hostage to bully into law their self-serving agenda that benefits the few at the expense of the many. The held up DADT, the START Treaty, and unemployment benefits for their top priority of the continued $4 trillion, non-jobs-creating, 10-12-year tax cuts for the super rich depriving America of badly-needed revenue from those that can easily afford it while cutting services for the working class and poor. The to-the-wire, budget shutdown crisis did exactly the same thing while pushing their fascist social agenda. They will do it all over again over the debt ceiling issue. They are the morally-bankrupt, faux Christians and faux patriots. Think they really care about the country as a whole? No, they care only about their narrow-minded agenda. Rep. Ryan's plan is the typical greedy, selfish, shallow Republican agenda: privatize Medicare/Medicaid which they have tried to kill since it was passed by and signed into law by Democrats. The GOP (Greed On Parade) crowd settled for being the largest profiteers of the system with the same abuse as the GOP-approved 435-plus, waste, fraud, and abuse war profiteers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their idea would force the poor and elderly with small, fixed incomes to pay not 30% but 60% or more. Leaving abusive governors like Wisc.'s Walkner to give massive tax breaks to the rich and corporations while cutting services for the poor and working class via vouchers. Ryan's plan also makes the massive tax breaks for the rich permanent cutting off needed revenues which they make up from the working class and while also giving other tax breaks to the rich and corporations. For the poorly-educated, Republicans have historically NEVER represented the working class. Today they do not even make a pretense of doing so in their overt class warfare. Remember all the employment benefits that workers take for granted were paid for in deaths, blood and sweat from union workers, progressives and the Democratic Party. Left to Republicans, there would be no social safety net. It would be everybody for themselves and all you GOP lackeys and rich wannabes will be left in the dust. You and your families have been tricked upon by the Republican "trickle down economy" just like the majority of working class Americans.

The Magisterium of the Catholic Church says those in power are morally obliged to promote and serve the needs of the poor. This is where the expression "bleeding heart liberal" came from. the expression is an attempt to deride and mock compassion and a sense of identification with those less fortunate.

People of all sects who call themselves Christian have to take a look at the use of divisive rhetoric by those pandering for primary votes, and reject it.

The two worst instances this week are from Newton Gingrich but Ryan and Boehner have a lot to answer for too.

Gingrich: Obama = foodstamp president. And what's the alternative to feeding the 20 million on foodstamps, Mr Speaker? No bread? Marie Antoinette suggested LET THEM EAT CAKE. Is that the GOP answer?

Gingrich: OK, Ryan's voucher idea for medicare is a dumb idea that would not really pay enough and does not address rising costs, but instead lets require anyone needing medical services to provide a bond before receiving care.

Oh, Really? Is that before or after they get Emergency room treatment? 50 million Americans will not qualify for the Gingrich medical bond.

He's timely if nothing else. Otherwise his approach is ridiculous like the rest of his "plan". Repubs are running away as fast as they can from this heritage foundation dream scheme that won't fly anywhere. Ryan has either decided to be the beloved idiot or he's just a plan old idiot if he thinks this is going anywhere.

What amazes me is that they are still going to push this abomination of a "budget." It strikes me as the clearest form mof desperation. It's all they have. Horrible as it si, it is all they have and quite likely the very best they could come up with. This is not exactly a winning poroposition going into the 2012 elections. As for his senate run, well with any luck Feingold will run against him. Wisconsin has serious GOP buyers remorse about now and Ryan will be about as popular as a case of the clap on prom night.

Rep. Ryan assserts that "Obamacare" will "give government the power to deny care to seniors,”

Answer 1: Yes, it will do exactly that if a panel of experts deem the "care" to be too expensive when weighed against the expected results. If I want a drug that will let me live 6 weeks longer but costs $500 per pill, then, sure, I should fund it myself.

Answer 2: This does not affect emergency or resusative procedures.

Answer 3: What is Rep. Ryan's not saying? What he doesn't do is tell you the Republican Solution: Give every senior a $5000 check and say "This should last you a year... if not, well, you should have planned your last few years better... good thing we already took your money from you up to age 62."

It's so refreshing to see that not everyone seems to be falling for the stupidity of the Republican party, which the majority of the country voted into office, & now is trying to deny they did. The new Republicans coming out of woodwork, scare me more than the old. I was raised in a republican family, but that was when Dwight D. Eisenhauer was in office (I was old enough to remember him, & they weren't out to screw over middle America with that give to the big business & the wealthy syndrome yet. I didn't agree with all that the Republicans did back then but at least I didn't fear them the way I do now. No one in that party really cares about the hard working, trying to provide for his/her family anymore. The wealthier you are, the more you know you're covered by the Republican party. For shame, for shame.

the solutions for socialist security include: 1) increasing the income at which the ss tax is incurred from its present 97K to 250K. 2) MEANS TEST socialist security. why does a person making $50K get socialist security on top of an income which every state in the union agree is more than suffices for mere survival?

It amazes me that Ryan and the republican party can spew Lies and expect people to believe it.....oh wait a minute...that is exactly what they did in 2010 elections and it worked. I hope that people are paying attention and be honest with themselves and see things for what they really are. You may not agree with Obama's approach to all things but atleast he cares about the elderly and the poor and those like me who's wife had cancer and could not afford to pay for treatment.

Everyone, except for the die-hard lefties, seem to understand that our current systems need reform. And reform of Social Security and Medicare is going to happen, whether the Democrats like it or not. Either voluntarily, through reform legislation, or forced through insolvency, these huge, unsustainable entitlments, as they exist today, are going to change - that is a fact.

Ryan actually had an excellent message, for anyone who cares to listen. But I do believe it falls upon deaf ears. Most libs have already made up their minds that anything besides Tax the Rich and Up the Entitlements is the only way forward. Funny, but I do believe that was the path we took to get here.

Everyone, except for the die-hard lefties, seem to understand that our current systems need reform. And reform of Social Security and Medicare is going to happen, whether the Democrats like it or not. Either voluntarily, through reform legislation, or forced through insolvency, these huge, unsustainable entitlments, as they exist today, are going to change - that is a fact.

Ryan actually had an excellent message, for anyone who cares to listen. But I do believe it falls upon deaf ears. Most libs have already made up their minds that anything besides Tax the Rich and Up the Entitlements is the only way forward. Funny, but I do believe that was the path we took to get here.

Everybody knows it needs reformed. The approach, render the program useless, or fund it through taxation and limits- is what is on the table. Ryan seeks to render it useless with the dream scheme the heritage foundation threw together and let him paste his name on it. Repub leadership can barely keep a straight face as you stooges eat this nonsense up. It's not going anywhere.

As a senior who should be wailing over medicare "death" at the hands of the Republicans there is one true fact. At some point someone has to pay for all the "freebies" handed out to special interests whether it is seniors or unions. The US is on its way to bankruptcy under both parties if the "entitlement" monster is not corralled and killed whether that "entitlement" is medicare or government subsidies for every thing under the world. Yeah I paid in to SS and all the rest just like all the average Americans but regardless of that fact Washington is well on its way to killing ALL GOVERNMENT PROGAMS DUE TO BANKRUPTCY OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. That is the reality for all even seniors.

Every medical coverage plan has "rationing" and "death paneling," because there is no plan that covers every treatment imaginable without restrictions. This is already true whether you have a government plan or a private one.

The question is, would you rather be "rationed" and "death paneled" by people who are trying to maximize the effectiveness of scarce resources, or by people who are trying to maximize the profits of a corporation by making resources scarce?

Please understand exactly who Ryan is. He is an advocate of Ayn Rand whose basic philosophy/ideology can be summarized thusly: the rich are "more deserving" and "better" than everyone else; everyone else is "just a parasite" and only deserves to work for the rich.

Ryan cares naught for anyone but the rich, the corporations. For all his rhetoric, know him for what he is: a advocate for plutocracy - rule of the rich.

For him, it is not government of, by, and for the people -- but government of, by, and for the rich....

The GOP which claims to be the party of "family values" and Christianity as forgotten His Words: For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Matt: 25:35-46 I guess they thought that He was lying....